Bigger Trees Near Warter
| Bigger Trees Near Warter | |
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| Artist | David Hockney |
| Year | 2007 |
| Type | Oil, canvas |
| Dimensions | 460 cm × 1220 cm (180 in × 480 in) |
Bigger Trees Near Warter or ou Peinture en Plein Air pour l'age Post-Photographique is a large landscape painting by British artist David Hockney. Measuring 460 by 1,220 centimetres or 180 by 480 inches, it depicts a coppice near Warter, Pocklington in the East Riding of Yorkshire and is the largest painting Hockney has completed. It was painted in the East Riding of Yorkshire between February and March 2007. The painting's alternative title alludes to the technique Hockney used to create the work, a combination of painting out of doors and in front of the subject (called in French ‘sur le motif’) whilst also using the techniques of digital photography.
The painting, a landscape near the village of Warter, between Bridlington and York, is set just before the arrival of spring when trees are coming into leaf. The painting is dominated by a large sycamore which features in 30 of the 50 panels. In the shallow foreground space a copse of tall trees and some daffodils stand on slightly raised ground. Another, denser copse is visible in the background. A road to the extreme left and two buildings to the right and rear of the composition offer signs of human habitation. Much of the painting's extensive upper half is devoted to the intricate pattern of overlapping branches, clearly delineated against a pale winter sky.
Although Hockney has lived in Los Angeles since 1978, he always returned to spend Christmas at his mother's house in Bridlington. From 2004 onwards he spent increasing lengths of time in Yorkshire; the rolling chalk hills around Bridlington became the focus of his art. In 2006 he made a series of nine large landscapes of Woldgate Woods, returning to the same spot between March and November to chart the changing seasons. Each of these works consisted of up to six panels.
On a trip to Los Angeles in February 2007, looking at images of his Woldgate Woods paintings, Hockney had the idea of working up the same scene over a much bigger scale. He had to work out how to complete this project without a ladder and in the small space of his studio in Bridlington. "The enormous 19th-century oil paintings like The Coronation of Napoleon in the Louvre were made in specially designed studios." Because of space considerations, Hockney had to avoid working on a ladder or on scaffolding: "The trouble is that with something like this you need to step back. Artists have been killed stepping back from ladders."
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